Book Review: Guruji's Ashram by Sunil Sinha

Guruji’s Ashram

Author: Sunil Sinha

Publisher: Frog Books (Leadstart publishing)

Rating: 3/5

Summary

Burning the midnight oil to snatch success from the jaws of death, is what everyone does. But during the whole process what are the chances that the personality of the individual would change too? Tapas has cherry picked opportunities for himself and is living a comfortable life by earning well and looking for better prospects. He even intends on marrying the girl he loves. But the odds do not seem to be in his favor! That’s when the Guruji comes into the picture and helps him by calling the shots.

With the help of the teachings of Guruji, Tapas finds a new path and starts treading on it. He makes business by sharing the ideas that he has learnt. With his modest beginning, he sets foot in the world of meditation, yoga and Bhagwad Gita and succeeds in setting up his own Ashram, which is no less than any blue chip company.  But yet again, the tables are turned and the plot transforms into a murder mystery. Who was murdered? Who was the murderer? To get all the answers, you need to enter Guruji’s Ashram and figure out yourself.

Grab your copy to know more!

My opinion

“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” ‘Guruji’s Ashram’ is one such story about greed and how it destroys life of individuals. The plot setting is apt. The cover would have been more appealing if more colors were used. The title is appropriate. The blurb is catchy and draws attention of the readers towards what is in store for them in the book.

The author has done a commendable job in maintaining the balance between the roles of all the characters and portraying their lives precisely. The font size, font style, indentation is perfect. But language disguises thought and thus, poor linguistic skills are the reason why this book blows up in the face of the readers. On the very first page itself there are so many mistakes- punctuation errors, wrong sentence formation and much more.

No doubt the plot is a refreshing one. There are twists and turns every now and then but the inclusion of intimate scenes spoils the fun. It should be understood that Indian Literature is not limited to erotic literature only. Some books can actually turn out to be the best sellers without even amalgamating intimate scenes. Other than this, the repetition of same sequence of events, time and again, breaks the flow of reading.

The characters of Minakshi, Rashmi and Tapas have been crafted very well. It can be said that the book satisfies the reading curiosity to a large extent by maintaining interest till the end.

Overall, a good effort by the author!

Best wishes!

Drawbacks

The major drawback in the book is the lack of proofreading and presence of several grammatical errors that makes the content ambiguous. The sentences are too long and some of the chapters have been included unnecessarily.

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Review Copy: provided by the author

Book Review: Postcards from memory by Samir Satan

Postcards from memory

Poet: Samir Satan

Genre: Poetry collection

Publishers: FirstStep Publishing

‘Postcards from memory’ is a lyrical journey of an individual and his precious moments. With this poetry/ collection, the poet has thrown light on various phases of life of an individual. The book is an attempt to capture the intangible moments one experiences and cherish them in form of words. The poems have been categorized under ten major headings, covering all aspects of life- temptations, morning, love, life, lost moments, death, perception and much more. Writing down what your heart feels at the moment, is always the right choice, for when you read it later, it definitely feels like your memory has sent you postcards. And the poet successfully fulfills this motive through this work of literature.

Coming to the technicalities of the writing, the poems are easy and short. The main style followed in majority of the poems, is free verse. ‘She goes’, ‘Coffee’ and ‘Wild child’ are three poems that I could actually relate with. Coffee is something that is an inevitable part of majority of the people. The poet has brought out the intricate details of the feelings and emotions felt while savoring the aroma of this drink. ’She goes’ portrays the raw frenzied emotions of someone who is waiting desperately. And last but not the least, ‘Wild Child’ is a showcase of free will and dreams. However, some of the poems are more like stories, summarized in one-liners and put as poems. Secondly, the typesetting and the font used is not apt. The standard Arial or Bookman Antiqua style would have been better.

Overall, a light read and enjoyable work of literature!

Best wishes to the poet!

Review copy: provided by FirstStep Publishing

MOCKTALE: DILWALE: Clash of Cars- A She(i)tty version!

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” and probably Rohit Shetty strongly believes in this, for his newbie ‘DILWALE’ is one such attempt that is unfathomable. The focal points of the movie are ‘cars’, ‘Sanjay Mishra’, a younger brother named ‘Veer’ (we have already met one in All the Best) and ‘Jhonny Lever’.

The title of the movie is misleading because nowhere do we get any idea about how relevant and apt is the title. Presenting before you, a mix of favourable and second rate checklist that will indeed, help you decide your opinion for the movie.

• The initial hype about the rekindling of the chemistry between SRK and KAJOL is a total fail. Trust me, Kajol is getting on in years (for those who still think that she is the same ‘mere khwabo me jo aaye’ girl). During the first part of the movie, when Kaali and Meera meet and fall in love, the all mushy and dreamy love tale gets spoiled, majorly due to the use of high- pitched voice by Kajol every now and then (puberphonia, eh? But that is more common in males!) and secondly because of Kajol looks like a mutton dressed as lamb. No doubt the costumes are great, but she doesn’t look that young (You got my point, right? No? Well, who cares!)
• Why is the movie named ‘Dilwale’? (Someone please justify the title)
• Is it necessary that if you are the ‘King’ then your adhaar card has to be made?
• The special ‘Rohit Shetty Clash of Cars’ effect, which was absolutely unnecessary and a total waste of money
• The wastage of clothes…. Who wears such long skirts and evening gowns, when standing on water (reminds me, how can one run on water) or on a crashed plane? Infact, where did she find a room to get dressed to the nines?
• Relating to the above point, how did SRK and Kajol reach the center of the icebergs (in the sea?)?
• Why is the ‘saree ka palla’ so long?
• ‘Sautela bhai, bache’ cliché! (Patented concept of Shetty)
• Bromance and Womance- Wow! Rohit Shetty patent continuing from Golmaal to Golmaal Returns to Golmaal 3 to All the best to Bol Bacchann!!
• When asked, Raghav told the truth without hemming and hawing. Had Kajol asked him earlier about the story behind the death of her ‘don’ father, the duration of the movie would have been lesser.
• Mission Impossible 2- car rotation- eyecontact- COPIED!
• How I met your mother- 5 minute date scene- COPIED!
• Probably, SRK loves doing movies which have a big leap. Baazigar had a leap of 15 years, Karan Arjun had a leap of 20 years, Om Shanti Om had a leap of around 20 years and now Dilwale. (Oops! Dilwale had 15 years, 4 months and 10 days. Wow!)
• SRK’s ‘aaaaaeeeeeeeee’ and the open arms cliché.

DILWALE is more like a vacation with lavish and posh cars that get blown up every now and then. It is not a movie but a travel brochure. You can watch it to know and search for several mesmerizing places (Obviously, Bulgaria is the main one!).

Anyway, the movie is a serious blow-up in the face of SRK and Kajol fans. Shetty comes up with such crazy ideas-he must definitely have bats in the belfry! But if you decide to keep your grey cells in your pocket and then watch this masterpiece, then you might like it for the music is great (Kudos Arijit Singh for Janam Janam) and the cinematography is breathtaking. Kriti and Dhawan have done justice to their roles. But as it is already being pointed out, the roles of ‘Oscar bhai’, ‘King’ and ‘Mani bhai’ were not required.

Dilwale cannot be put into the category of an entertainer because the only factor responsible for its eminence is the comeback of the most romantic B- world pair! In the end, it’s all about different folks having different strokes!